I saw a guy wander out of one of the tents with his cock out, speaking to someone on his phone, and pissing as he'd walked. He pissed over a girl's leg and, when she objected, just replied "Oh fuck off love" and carried on walking.

I've been 3 times and last year I finally decided to stop giving it any more chances. It's awful.

2004 I was coming back from the Shins, and right at the back of The Darkness crowd on the main stage I honestly saw a group of wankers in a circle, about 3 of them just got their dicks out and starting pissing.

Then one of them was sick

Then they tripped some poor fucker up so he went right in the pissy vom.

The crowd actually isn't as bad as people say, unless you hate young people, but a lot of them aren't primarily there for the music and will listen casually and talk over it even in the front rows.

Sound issues are terrible apart from the main stage, which is fairly average for a London festival (i.e. still nowhere near loud enough). Sound from all the tents bleeds into each other, and you can pretty much forget about watching anything acoustic in the smaller tents as there will be 3 prominent bass lines swamping it from all directions.

That said, the only year it's been absolutely unbearable is 2011, when it was ridiculously overcrowded to the extent of not being able to get in the tents to see any electronic music at times, and being caught in bottlenecks for ages.

I'm think I'm off London festivals for good. The convenience never outweighs the logistical problems.

but that first one was completely dire, so they didn't exactly start in the best place.

It's generally full of cunts (especially towards late afternoon/evening), and about 40% of people are there to actually see the bands. Don't expect brilliant sound. If you've got some cash to spare, it'd be an alright day out. Personally, I would never go again, but if you've not been before it might be OK.

it's basically a day of hazy wandering between bands you can't see or hear very well and you have a reasonably ok time and it's a bit of a chore sometimes and other times it seems really good briefly and then you think about it a month later and you have NO MEMORIES.
I've been three or four times and I have NO MEMORY of it. It is the least memorable thing you can do that is reasonably fun and ok.
Go, it's ok. You won't remember it. It's ok.

The year before last was upsettingly awful so last year I wrote it off until last minute and then thought 'fuck it, I'd spend £40 just to watch Tortoise' and it was bloody great: They'd re-increased the size of the grounds so that nothing stepped on anything else. Plenty of toilets, food and bars. Good atmosphere at the right tents...

You are in East London so expect some cuntery, but if you live there you're already numb to it, probably a cunt myself... But if you live close by you should definitely go for a good line up.

Before that I'd taken the rough with the smooth with FD, but that was absolute bullshit. I came away having seen barely anything that I wanted to, and the one or two things I had seen had been ruined. Forking out £50 to be packed in a cattle shed for the day, except it didn't have the bonus that Bloc had of seeing shit that would've easily cost £80 to catch individually, having awesome after parties, and ultimately being free of charge.

(all because my mate who asked me to go with him took fucking ages picking up whilst I was waiting at his house, otherwise I would've been there a lot earlier).

I was in the queue for Field Day when people were posting pictures on here of the 'horrendous' queues, and it only took about 20 minutes to get in from right at the very back.

That being said, I don't dispute there were some people who got the most out of Bloc by getting in early, some of my mates got there early and went straight on the Stubnitz and had a fucking amazing time. In general though it was a fucking unmitigated nightmare.

yeah sure there are cunts, but you get them everywhere. i saw every band i wanted to, and from a perfect spot within the crowd. there was a bit of talking over some bands, but that's to be expected. i had a lovely lunch, saw 6 or so great perofomances and even chatted to a couple of really polite and nice strangers. definitely worth going

Queues to get in were fine, though it was early.
Faust were amazing, surprisingly small crowd.
Mark Kozelak was ruined by the noise from the rave tent and the fairground rides that they'd cleverly put right next to a guy playing solo guitar. He looked so upset.
Omar Souleyman got an amazing reception, great crowd. Shame I couldn't get too close.
John Cale, Sun Ra Arkestra and Villagers were all disappointing; not much of a crowd reaction at all. I've seen them play much better gigs elsewhere.
Food was good, beer OK. Toilets OK for guys, anyway.
Overall wasn't terrible, but it was too crowded and no-one seemed interested in most of the bands playing down the order. There are other, better festivals basically.

Had a great day and didn't experience any of the crap other people seemed to. Beyond the mild irritants of it getting a bit busy in the early evening, struggling to get into Actress and paying the prices for beer I expected to pay everywhere in London (but was pleasantly surprised not to) it was great.

Gave it a miss in favour of Bloc last year but, looking at the line up, will be well up for coming back this year.

"Left for london via Copenhagen, for a concert in the park at 1:30pm
Got upon the stage, people gathered round
Retro 80s band... drownded out my sound
went and got my check, went back to my room
Feeling suicide, feeling full of gloom

Turned on the tv, there was rioting & stuff...
As if this city isn't depressing enough

I'll never forget that performance, I thought he was going to cry. The dance tent nearby was somehow being echoed more loudly within his tent than it was outside and he was just saying to the crowd - 'why would you do this to yourselves? Why would anyone who likes my music come to somthing like this?' He pulled it together and finished the show somehow - I actually got a bit wet round the eyes myself...

Unless you really want to see a load of jump up drum'n'bass, brostep and students with neon face paint haha. Outlook was amazing when I went but obviously since Dimensions exists now I'd imagine it'd be a very different atmosphere. If I could afford it I'd go back to Dimensions in a heartbeat though, can't recommend it enough.